Open Primaries

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Talk Talk: Team of Obamaists

Newman: I don't think Obama's going to fall into that trap. He's looking to do things that the American people think are working. He's considering some different kinds of things, and that's fine, because he just got elected president.

Salit: As you said, George Bush and the neo-cons were highly ideological. They developed policy approaches that reflected an ideology, not a pragmatic framework for dealing with the situation in the Middle East, responding to terrorism, etc. So, the American people say Well, we reject ideology in favor of pragmatism. We think Obama can deliver that. And, we'd like to see pragmatism delivered by somebody with a progressive world view.

Newman: Well, I don't know if I agree with that formulation. I don't know that the American people are making that kind of inference.

Salit: OK.

Newman: I think they're saying something closer to wanting the American Idea to be more palatable. They'd rather we're not just the place where all the troops come from. We'd be better off having other ways to assert our leadership internationally.....

Every Sunday CUIP's president Jacqueline Salit and strategist and philosopher Fred Newman watch the political talk shows and discuss them. Here are excerpts from their dialogue on Sunday, November 23, 2008 after watching "The Chris Matthews Show" and "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."